Foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 820 New Hampshire properties in August, a 2 percent decrease from the previous month and down 30 percent from August 2009, according to the latest RealtyTrac® U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.

“New Hampshire foreclosures were down slightly in August,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “The largest decline was in bank-owned properties, which fell 13 percent for the month. Unemployment, which is one of the lowest in the nation continues to decline from its historical peak earlier this year. These factors are driving the overall decline in foreclosure activity.”

New Hampshire ranked 37th in the nation in total foreclosures for the month. Its foreclosure rate of one in every 728 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing during the month ranked it 27th among the 50 states.

HillsboroughCounty leads state in foreclosure rate for August

One in every 635 housing units received a foreclosure filing in HillsboroughCounty during August, the top county foreclosure rate in the state. One in every 674 housing units received a foreclosure filing in StraffordCounty, the second highest rate. Coming in third was RockinghamCounty, where one in every 679 housing units received a foreclosure filing. Fourth was BelknapCounty, where one in every 704 housing units received a foreclosure filing. MerrimackCounty came in fifth, with one in every 704 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing during the month.

State’s top foreclosure total for August posted in HillsboroughCounty

HillsboroughCounty led the state in total foreclosure activity for August, reporting 256 properties with foreclosure filings. Second highest was RockinghamCounty, where 183 properties with foreclosure filings were reported. MerrimackCounty was third, tallying 88 properties with foreclosure filings. Fourth highest was StraffordCounty, where 75 properties with foreclosure filings were reported. BelknapCounty came in fifth, reporting 51 properties with foreclosure filings for the month.

State a minor contributor to nation’s monthly foreclosure total

New Hampshire accounted for less than 1 percent of the 338,836 properties with foreclosure filings reported nationwide in August. Total U.S. activity increased by more than 4 percent from the previous month, but was down more than 5 percent from the level reported in August 2009. One in every 381 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the month.

Report methodology

The RealtyTrac U.S. Foreclosure Market Report provides a count of the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing entered into the RealtyTrac database during the month — broken out by type of filing by state, county and metropolitan statistical area. Some foreclosure filings entered into the database during the month may have been recorded in previous months. Data is collected from more than 2,200 counties nationwide, and those counties account for more than 90 percent of the U.S. population. RealtyTrac’s report incorporates documents filed in all three phases of foreclosure: Default—Notice of Default (NOD) and Lis Pendens (LIS); Auction— Notice of Trustee Sale and Notice of Foreclosure Sale (NTS and NFS); and Real Estate Owned, or REO properties (that have been foreclosed on and repurchased by a bank). If more than one foreclosure document is received for a property during the month, only the most recent filing is counted in the report. The report also checks if the same type of document was filed against a property in a previous month. If so, and if that previous filing occurred within the estimated foreclosure timeframe for the state the property is in, the report does not count the property in the current month.

For current news and information regarding foreclosure-related issues and trends, check out our blog at www.ForeclosurePulse.com.

About RealtyTrac

RealtyTrac® is the leading provider of comprehensive housing data and analytics for the real estate and financial services industries, Federal, state and local governments, academic institutions, and the media. Data is aggregated from parcel-level records of more than 125 million U.S. residential and commercial properties and delivered through customizable products including bulk file licensing, APIs and custom reports.